Rant: Usability vs. lawyers
So, here's the story: my wife and I recently bought a new TV for the master bedroom, a spiffy widescreen, HD LCD model. Of course, to be really cool, you have to hang it on the wall. I should point out that I'm not what most people would call "handy", although I have occasional delusions to the contrary.We proceeded to buy a wall mount at Best Buy; so far so good. A couple of days later, the trouble begins. I learn that the kit is designed around wood wall studs and our highrise condo uses metal studs. Out comes the instruction book, which helpfully tells me to call the manufacturer. After finally reaching them, the manufacturer tells me to talk to my local hardware store, as UL doesn't recommend mounting on metal studs. Lesson: CYA trumps customer service, and lawyers beat out usability.
Finally, though, the kind managers at my local Ace Hardware walk me through it (over the course of multiple visits). For their efforts, I buy about $8 in parts. On the other hand, these fellas are smart enough to realize that we've bought almost $500 in paint and hardware in the past two years and that customer service actually has value.
Anyway, I digress. Finally, the power tools and I triumph, and the mount is on the wall. Next, comes the "easy" part, removing the pedestal from the TV. Two instruction manuals, no reference to it at all, even though the TV is clearly designed for mounting. Of course, if they told you how to mount it, they might get sued, so let's leave that part out of the book. No mention of the product at all on the website, let alone how to use it. Lawyers: 2, Usability: 0.
One last note, and maybe I should save this for a piece called "Usability vs. engineers": while trying to figure out how to remove the stand, I noticed that a number of the screws on the back of the TV had arrows pointing to them. It turns out that the screws that needed to be removed to take off the stand had NO arrows, while all the screws that actually hold the case together had arrows. Now, call me crazy, but you put an arrow next to a screw and it just cries out "Unscrew Me!". Lawyers: 2, Engineers: 1, Usability: 0.
Anonymous
· Friday, December 29I love usability stories. I use them in my classes. Keep posting them.